California man boasted of brutally attacking Sikh farmworker

Daniel Coronel Wilson, 22, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault likely to produce great bodily injury and also denied the hate crime allegation. He faces up to eight years in prison if convicted. Wilson is being held in the Fresno County Jail in lieu of $35,000 bail.

As per reports, “ISIS, let’s get him,” Daniel Coronel Wilson allegedly told Alexis Mendoza, 17, early morning Dec. 26, 2015. Court documents and police reports quoting Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer stated, Bal was standing on Shields Avenue between Blythe and Brawley avenues around 6:30 a.m. Dec. 26 waiting for a ride to work. He stood alone in the cold fog when a black Dodge Challenger stopped near him. The 17-year-old driver and Wilson exited the vehicle and began to beat Bal with their fists, Dyer said.

After the beating, the suspects got back in their car. Bal tried to run away, Dyer said, when he heard the muscle car accelerate toward him. He tried to avoid it, but the 17-year-old veered into Bal, authorities said, knocking him into the air briefly before he slammed into the pavement. A private security video from a camera mounted on a nearby home captured the car hitting the victim.

Dyer said Bal remained unconscious on the roadway for six minutes until his friends, who were on their way to give him a ride to the farm he worked at, found him. He was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries and has since recovered.

At a press conference Mar. 29, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer announced the arrests of Wilson and Mendoza. “I have no doubt in my mind that the suspects intentionally struck him. They left him in the middle of the street, where he lay motionless for six minutes,” the police chief told media. Wilson and Mendoza – who was to be tried as an adult – were both charged with felony assault and committing a hate crime. Mendoza – believed to be the driver of the car – was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm.

The young man was facing 13 years in prison, if found guilty. However, on April 22, Mendoza committed suicide at the home he shared with his family. A funeral service was held for Mendoza on April 27.

Wilson – who is free on $35,000 bail – faces up to eight years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty. At the preliminary hearing, Harley Maldonado, a friend of the two defendants, testified that Mendoza called him after the attack. He said he could hear Wilson because he was on speaker phone with Mendoza. The pair sounded drunk, Ramirez testified, according to a report in The Fresno Bee.

Maldonado testified that Mendoza told him that he had run over “a Hindu.” Wilson described the victim as ISIS and said it was Wilson’s idea to get him, Maldonado said. Both defendants told Maldonado that they punched Bal several times in the face before running over him with the car.

Another friend, Nicholas Ramirez, testified that Mendoza bragged about the attack, but Wilson was quiet about it, according to The Fresno Bee report. Based on testimony presented by Wilson’s friends and additional testimony from Fresno police, Superior Court Judge Arlan Harrell to order Wilson to stand trial. A trial date has not been set.